Behind the scenes details regarding Steve Austin’s match against Kevin Owens at WWE WrestleMania 38

So I happened to run into him at a show in Baltimore that he was at for Raw. So I went in and we talked, and it’s funny, because like I said I saw him in 2005, then for years didn’t see him at all. Then in 2012 I was at the top of Ring of Honor. I was probably the top guy in the indys at that point and I was listening to the Stone Cold Podcast all the time. At the end of his podcast, he’d always say if you have any questions send it to questions at BSR… whatever his website was. So I said, I’m going to send him an email thanking him for the advice he gave me all those years ago. Maybe he’ll answer but maybe he’ll even have me on his podcast. And sure enough that’s exactly what happened. I emailed him, ‘2005 at the airport you gave me great advice, and my career has flourished since. Thank you.’ And he wrote back, I actually do remember that. ‘So do you want to be on my podcast?’ And like, yeah. So he goes, ‘Okay, I have Jim Cornette as my guest on this podcast, I’ll do an hour with Jim and then your part will be after, we’ll do 10 minutes with you.’ I’m like, great. Then he calls me and goes, ‘Hey, I don’t know what happened, but Cornette’s not answering. So let’s just do the whole podcast together.’ I was like yes, finally Jim Cornette does something good for me.

So yeah, we did the whole podcast. Talked for like an hour and when it came out the next day it was a huge deal because he hadn’t really done a podcast with an independent guy at that point. I think maybe Colt [Cabana] had done his podcast by that point, but that was it. So it was a huge deal for me. And the fans were really excited, and they listened to the conversation, and I think that really helped. At the end of the podcast he goes WWE should take a look at this guy, and it wasn’t long after. I’d already had the communication with them. But I think that helped in making it more serious and making more of a priority, almost. Then years later, here we are running into each other at WWE. I had to tell him just how crucial he was and helping me get there.

So anyway, then I asked him I want to do the Stone Cold Stunner as my finisher, and I just want to make sure you’re okay with it, and he said, ‘Yeah, I actually can’t believe nobody’s asked me already yet. So yeah, please go ahead.’ So I was really pumped. Then I went to Vince and asked him if I could, and he said, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ Okay. Then years went by and I got hurt. I went away for a bit and I came back as a babyface. My first match back was a tag team match against Erik Rowan and Daniel Bryan, who was doing the protecting the earth, and I had to go over. I had to beat Bryan that night. They’re like, Well, what do you want to do? Stone Cold Stunner? And they said, okay, all right. And that was it. From then on became my finish.

So I would have to admit tying back to how he came back, when I asked him to use the Stone Cold Stunner yes, I wanted a new finishing move and yes, I think it’s the greatest finish of all time. But there was a big part of me who thought in the unlikely event, which won’t happen, but if he ever were to come back for a match, it’s going to be against the guy who was doing his finishing move, and that’s exactly what happened. So I don’t think that played a part in it. I think Vince wanted him to be on WrestleMania in Dallas and he wasn’t sure in what capacity. I’m not sure how. I think they talked. He said no at first from what I understand. Then they went back to him, and he’s like, Okay, who would it be with? And I think that’s when they said me, which I think he was good with. Then somehow, was it going to be a talking segment? Was it going to be a match? Was it going to be a stunner? Literally up until the day of the show we had no idea. Me and Steve had talked, I would talk to Steve, ask him, ‘What are we going to do?’ And he goes, ‘I don’t know, depends on Vince.’ So I talked to Vince, and Vince goes depends on Steve. And I’m like can’t you guys talk to each other for f*ck sake? But yeah, up until that day we really didn’t know for sure what it was going to be, turned out to be what it was and it was pretty great. I’m very lucky to have been a part of it. To this day the craziest thing that I’ll ever have done in my career, and I don’t think anything will top it. Even me and Sami winning the tag titles at WrestleMania was unbelievable. In the main event, which is great now, because WrestleMania Main Event night one. There’s a lot of people that argue it’s not really the main event, but now that Punk’s in it this year, everyone says it is the main event, because you don’t want to take that away from him. So now it finally validates that. So anyway, winning the titles at WrestleMania together was insane. We were talking about this stuff when our dream would be a let’s win the Ring of Honor tag titles, we’re talking about this in like 2004 and then we never even really talked about winning the WWE Tag titles, because we’re not going to be in WWE are we? No, we are. And then we start talking, we got to team and win the tag titles, and then we teamed for a little bit in 2018 but then we went our separate ways. So we’re like we didn’t even win the tag titles. And we kind of thought, oh, I guess that’s it. But then the story started to shift with him and The Usos and stuff. And anyway, all the pieces fell into place, and we won the tag titles at WrestleMania as incredible and kind of unlikely as that moment was, it still wasn’t as unlikely as Stone Cold coming back 19 years later for a match. So to this day, that match with Steve will always be and like I said, I don’t think anything will top it the craziest night of my career.”

On whether Steve Austin stiffed him in the match: “Yeah. Actually the night of the match, when I go back to my hotel my earlobe was swollen like this big from his punches. I went [squeezes] and it just splattered against the mirror. He kept saying, You didn’t give me any receipts. What am I gonna do? But honestly, in that moment too, I felt the punches but they weren’t any worse than anything I felt before. But to him, that shows how much of a pro he is. Bret has always prided himself on how he’s never hurt anyone. You could barely feel him in the ring and stuff, and that’s amazing. I think Steve was the same way, so he prided himself on not killing people and that night he knew he was killing me. But to me it was not any worse than other guys.”